Wildfire
by cosla
Summary: A fantasy series set prior to the events of the TV show that has Princess Bubblegum and Marceline struggling to handle the responsibilities of defending Ooo from a wild menace while also discovering each other.
1. Chapter 1

In the darkest hours of the night, a garbled mass of a figure could be seen striding through long sweeps of grass into the lands where fire perpetually burned the earth into obsidian. The figure, engulfed in billowing robes of fire, was owned by a very peculiar old wizard. A half-being, half-elemental force thrown within the bounds of a flame; he was one of the oldest villains Ooo had ever feared but since forgotten many centuries ago. In his heyday, his dark power had exceeded that of the Rain Wraith and even the Lich's evil intern, the Ghost Eater. But he was sucked of his precious power and struck down by a soaring alliance of wizards and wild tribes, exiled to a hellish, unworldly dimension. This fact was agonizingly poignant to the defeated lord; it was a chip on his shoulder that dug into the tendons, searing his nerves.

Almost immediately, however, his brooding gave way to a grin full of smoke stained teeth, for he had just the card to gain back his fortunes. He quickened his pace through the Fire Kingdom, keeping to the molten rivers that would lead him to a great volcano far apart from civilization. Once inside the mountain he set to work, pulling out his compendium of summons. He ran his fingers through the hand bound pages, their edges crispy and yellowed from when the flame shield had ran out momentarily. Diagrams, prompts, conjurations- all of his own making, produced out of so many years suffering. It was the only pride he found in his estranged existence, for it was the key to his redemption. He cleared his throat and listened to the long echo in the belly's chamber, then began sending whispered spells into the air. The murmurs burst into a winding chant as lava bubbled and popped in the stomach of the volcano, odd vortexes crystallized in the splashing fire and dissolved just as soon. The evil wizard was in a trance, wavering back and forth, transmitting his code to the heat. Out of the waves formed a door framed in fire and as the portal became firm a warped image arose in the panel. A growling beast lay in wait, it's grotesque body a multitude of tentacles with skin not of this world that showed no texture but absolute abyss with an outline of deep blue; the only features that sprung from the blackness were two round, yellow eyes and a blue twisting mouth. They floated in a globule that perched on top of the body.  
"Finally, Ignisem. Get me out of this hell pit." The horrific creature rumbled.  
Ignisem nodded, only flinching slightly at seeing his old prison of exile behind the monster.  
_Soon, I will once again rule the rich land,_ he soothed himself and focused back on the spells.

His incantations flew up into a roar; the sea of lava was jerking and exploding in a terrifying rage. In a moment of pure noise, an inner lucidity to the portal stretched from the center out to the frame and the monstrosity slimed out into this dimension.  
"Now I have the power to bring you from the Sideways Flamish Abyssal, Atrocitas. Now no one can stop me." Ignisem huffed, managing a baleful smirk between his pants of exhaustion.  
"You still lack the power to summon my army, Ignisem. We must maintain our discretion." The monster remarked, "but the night is young on this sheep farm, let us go taste some innocent blood."

A smile slithered across its face, white thorns beneath the lips.  
* * *

"Princess, I'm sorry to interrupt…" A mint candy in suit dawdled in the hall.  
"Oh, that's fine Peppy, do come in." A regal voice called in a soothing way.

Princess Bubblegum sighed very discretely, bowing her head to her guest sitting across a small coffee table. The man sat firm in his casually assertive manner, smiling genuinely at the princess. He was the esteemed prince Singly Eota: a war hero of Ooo, hailing from Castle Catwarmth in the Shiny Isles. A warrior prodigy, he set his stature by ridding the land of the ruthless Neardowhales and their crime syndicate. His likeness smiled over posh dining halls and food carts alike in glorified portraits, his exploits winding in everyone's imagination, and his presence, the princess found, was particularly exhausting. He carried himself lightly and gracefully, his wits as sharp as his reflexive skill on the battlefield. He matched her edgy prattle with just as much intelligence and even a bit more charm, which she struggled to accept gracefully. Years of her staunch rejection of any suitor had made a restless public. They hardly cared to hide their fantasies of a royal wedding anymore, and he hid nothing- only dodged. He leaned so much ambiguity on his sentences that she felt she was both fighting to keep the wit and the guard in her word choice, not giving him a hint of flirtation. A smile came out of his keenly sculptured features in the silence between them, and she noted the rarity of his beauty and wits as a goblin.

_These are odd times, _she hummed in her head.

She nodded again at him and pushed herself up from the plush chair, his piercing eyes tracing her as she crossed over to the butler-messenger at the door.

"Go ahead," said Bubblegum.

"Ah, ok… there has been report of an assault, occurring yesterday in the southwest grasslands. Our consort there has described the aggressors to be an ink monster accompanied by a fire wizard. Eight souls lost."

"'Ink monster?'" The princess repeated.  
"Ah, yes. That's the explicit wording. An 'ink monster with a wizard of fire'. I would suggest that this could be linked to a recent incident at the edge of the Desert Lands. Four souls dead there and a few acres of the Spooky Forest burned down. Survivors described a 'wizard who was producing fire'."

"Hmm, so you have a menace I see." The noise of sliding steel approached Bubblegum from behind.

"Ah, Prince Eota… what an honor." Peppermint Butler bowed deeply.

"Do you have further information on these hostiles, Peppers?" Princess Bubblegum said after the butler straightened from his bow.

"Well, ah…"

"Yes?" Eota pushed ahead of Bubblegum.  
"Um, It's not in the Kingdom's domain." Peppermint Butler seemed nervous.  
"If there are innocent souls at risk, I do not care whose jurisdiction it falls under." Eota said.

For the second time today she was shocked at his bold passion. He really was a hero. _Still…_

"Ah, it's an incident I've heard from a friend. It's about the Underground." He seemed to shake a little when Bubblegum subtly rolled her eyes, disgusted at the very mention of the Gomorrah of Ooo. He continued nonetheless after a gulp,

"ah, well, they say a wizard has been sabotaging their soul source- the Spark Alternator, you will remember. It has impacted their infrastructure quite a bit. Untold souls lost there."

"Hmm, well it doesn't _really_ count since those souls are already dead." Princess Bubblegum said, crossing her arms.

Eota turned towards Bubblegum, "my Princess, if I may, the Underground is still technically an associate of the Kingdom, under conditions of the Ghost Eater Treaty. And under the Black Licorice Agreement the Kingdom is required to aid the Underground if they encounter any troubles with the Spark Alternator, since it is mutually beneficial. Is that still correct?"

"Yeah, yeah…'_the proper function of the Soul Source must be maintained to ensure no loss or manipulation of the fellow souls of Our Land.'_" She recalled, but it was more like mocking. This was her little rebellious tendency, how she kept interesting- mostly to herself.

Eota took a second to smile, like he knew why she had said it so funny, then said:

"my lady, this wizard is a threat to the security of our lands. I will make it my personal quest to rescind _whatever_ is inhibiting you." He bowed gracefully, even in his battle armor.

The Princess accepted his word, squinting a little upon reading into the subtle double meaning he had sewed in. In the offbeat of silence, he glanced at her and took a deep breath as if to start something heavy.  
"Oh! Do you hear that? It must be your parade, good knight!" Bubblegum said, rushing to the opposite side of the room and unlocking a latch that retained two heavy doors together. The hero followed, bemused. Upon swinging open the doors, a blast of noisy pomp hit the two and they walked onto the balcony to see the entire Candy Kingdom below them cheering. The hero Eota lit up as he waved to his admirers, blowing kisses, laughing loudly.  
_He's great. Smart, brave, honest…He's the hero we need in these weird times, _she thought. _Still, for all that charm I can't seem to be thrilled. He doesn't excite me like… Oh, curse that vampire girl! Why can't she leave my thoughts?_


	2. Chapter 2

Beneath the soil of the great expanses of Ooo, laid across in a hollowed, hazy shelf in the land's paneling, sat the Underground in all of its oozing coolness. Defying the dim mood of the perpetual curtains of fog, the air glowed in the spectrum of neon signs from the countless nightclubs. Every club had a different convulsion of noise leaking through its walls, but all together the cacophony was reminiscent of a jet engine endlessly spinning itself into wreck accompanied by splashes of cymbals.

The usual crowd stuffed itself along the only street in the Underground it needed- the Strip. Vampire and ghost mingled and moshed along with a smack of other twisted spawns of nature's sadistic side. Together, they all became one throbbing monster that hollered, belched and smashed-in anything that looked somewhat respectable. Somewhere in the intestines of this monster was a peculiar phantom, strange even to the various beasts raging on the street that night, though no one would care to notice. The visage of it closely resembled any old ghost you'd know from your brother's all-synth band, but the way its edged drifted randomly and sometimes broke around the hard bodies of the Strip's patronage gave its true self away- smoke. It flowed around inside an invisible form that some magic kept persistent, arising in long, smooth billows from the tiniest patch of fire that traced along on the ground. This little flame ate magical fuel, keeping a constant, dull licking that was careful to not catch the eye of any passersby. It darted hitherto, determined to a destination as if it were flying down a fuse. The flame finally drew out of the crowd and snuffed the ghostly facade above it, heading then into the murky hills of the landscape. It found an old stone road leading up a hill lined with shacks and started speeding with a hissing sound towards a large hulking mechanical castle that stretched out overhead.

On top of the hill the Spark Alternator rumbled and coughed as usual; above the building was a web of bulging pipes jammed into an opening, carrying their fill of rudimentary life energy. They stretched away from the funnel off into the upper limits of the Underground and rose into the soil of Ooo. In slid the tiny fire from the path, making its little way towards the building. Within some magical dimension the greedy eyes of Ignisem, the fire wizard menace, peered out of the flame at his new source of power.

_My redemption, my catalyst to domination, my sou—AGHH!_

From behind, a heavy leather boot had slammed down onto his fire, raising again and repeatedly stomping him out. The fire bellowed from beneath the boot and exploded into the form of the fire wizard, his molten face seething in pain. His eyes met those of his attacker: a black clad mistress with a grin.

"So you're the idiot that's trying to mess with _my_ world?" The mistress rose into the air and circled him, piercing him with two red eyes that shot out from the shade of her cap.

"Don't try to stop me vampire, I will find a way-" he stopped abruptly as she plunged forward into his face, making a terrifying hiss that gripped his heart.  
She found his fiery throat with her bony fingers, wringing the neck with a powerful grip despite his heat boiling her skin. She ignored the pain and leaned in again to hiss,

"I will be here every night until I kill you. Count on that." Her face had morphed into two slanted rings of fire and a mouth full of spikes.

Ignisem twisted from her grip and fell back into his little flame, then sped away into the fog, blazing towards the exit of the Underground. Touching down to the ground, she put her hands on her hips and scowled, stomping on the ground with excess adrenaline.

"Marceline!"

A meager voice called as it approached, belonging to an even more meager looking ghost. The dark vampire flashed a look to the ghost, who stopped a distance away and observed the scene.

"Was it him again?" He squeaked.

Marceline nodded then turned her attention to her right hand. It was scorched and throbbing, but as she concentrated the blackness seemed to drip off and from beneath her smooth, pale skin shone anew. For the millionth time she smirked at how awesome being a vampire was.

"If you don't mind, we, ah, have a council prepared that would like your attendance, m'lady. There is much to discuss." The ghost said, hovering at a nervous distance from her.

"Yes, there is." She sighed.

Together they floated down the hillside and shot past the noise into a side street of boring, practical buildings. The ghost kept a good buffer between them as he briefed her during the short putt from the Alternator to the Council Hall. He was saying something about the new council elects, their names and backgrounds. Marceline nodded but blatantly had her attention towards the Strip, smiling as she watched a swath of vampires dive into a brawl against a foolish gang of grease demons. He stopped at the two solid metal doors that shuttered in the government of the Underground, she floated up next to him.

"May I request that you…uh, appear a bit more… presentable, please? They've never met the royal representative." The ghost said uncomfortably.

She scoffed and looked down at herself: a full body of night black leather with the jacket undone and flowering out down the middle. Streaks of shining zipper shot around her arms and legs, her pants plunged into tall black combat boots. She zipped the leather jacket up to her neck and took off the strappy cap she wore to whip her hair back behind her shoulders.

"There." She said.

The ghost nodded, satisfied enough at least for her abnormally placid mood towards him. He rapped on the doors and they slowly crept open, revealing the dim light of the large chamber inside.

The Council Hall was stuffed with a convention of dull shades. Everywhere were ghostly suits: yammering on phones, digging through parchment, looking like the world was about to end. Marceline flinched inside, she knew what was about to happen. The ghosts wanted a way to fix the problem of the fire wizard without it costing too much money. Every time something bad happened to the Underground or its residents, the suited ghosts would show up complaining about the price. Less and less nowadays you would see a ghost in a club with his fellows, more likely you would see him opening one. They hushed abruptly as she stepped into the light of the main hall at the edge of a great round table. She was not expecting them to heave their full attention so quickly and it took her a second to collect her thoughts.

"My name is Marceline, I've been the royal representative for the Underground for the past 3 years."  
The crowd nodded, then her expression hardened.  
"Now if you're going to ask me how much this is going to cost, forget it. This is much more important than…" She stopped, genuinely shocked by how intently they were watching her.

"…We were going to ask you how to save us." A voice floated out from the back.  
Everyone nodded at that, and for the first time she saw fear in their faces. It hit her then: the Alternator was their soul source, without a supply of souls the ghosts risked their light fading and their forms dispersing into the wind. The ultimate immortality that had given the ghosts their advantage over the other monsters of the Underground had finally been shown its Achilles heel. She suppressed an urge to smile and began anew with a lighter tone.

"Then we're all in this together, alright?"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Alright, that's all I can do for now. More soon! Maybe at the end of the week.**

The plush castle was in a great tizzy today, more so than the Princess had seen in years. Their shared fear pulled the subjects into a rage of productivity, refitting the palace with everything needed to defend and plot against a menace. Skidding furniture rattled from above and below; dust and spider webs showing in the corners where long sat the niceties. She knew a hundred cleaners currently scoured the castle hunting for these blemishes, yet she could see one now as she sat in her temporary war room. In a dark slit where a vanity had been moved there was grime creeping up the candy wall. She didn't mind at all, in fact she had been almost obsessively looking at it during the proceedings that she endured from her staff, now whittled down to Singly Eota and a human soldier. Her eyes glanced over them quickly now, then tracked impulsively back to the grime. Something about it, the taboo of the dirtiness thrilled her. It prodded some repressed excitement and she suddenly knew why: it reminded her of a dark vampire she had once briefly known and now was constantly reminded of ever since the subject of the Underground was daily discourse. The vampire had once been a royal representative for that forsaken place; a rowdy young lady who had done a horrible job at settling the terms to a re-affirmation of allegiance between the Candy Kingdom and the Underground. She had, however, done a rather good job at distracting the Princess, shocking her throughout the entire hearing with incredibly inappropriate babble. In a perpetual repose in the air, the vampire would shoot out cleverly subtle jabs at the Princess, making fun of her in ways she had never even considered viable. She remembered being flustered both for the vampire's behavior and her own silent enjoyment of it. She had been a Princess for as long as she could remember, but not once did anyone have the guts to _tease_ her for her prestigious mannerisms. This lady had come along out of the fog and smashed her entire default impression of life. She had no wits to react, no snarky retorts that she had once considered herself a master of. The vampire had made her feel a fool, but she was not mad. She felt like if only she could have reacted better, _cooler, _they could've become friends and she could've learned something other than the doldrums of leadership. But the moment slipped out of her reach, and she found herself back at home, stuffed into the claustrophobic routine of the palace. It was obvious just how lowly she regarded her day-to-day, as she became obsessed with the prospect of proving herself to a random vampire, brooding on it at least once a week for the past 2 years since it had happened. She was now running through the old ripostes she had created too late for their brief conversations, staring off into the corner.

"Uh, Princess?" The soldier said.

Oh yes. The war. How lovely.

Eota stepped forward.

"Princess, we were just discussing the armament of goblin forces in case the menace threatens war. We need your approval to allocate the equipment."

_In case._ The wizard had already claimed 42 souls across Ooo in 7 different attacks, each successively reporting an increased number of the heavily mystified 'ink monsters'.

She blinked off the film of memory she had been perusing and sat up in her chair, placing her hands on to the paper filled table she sat at. She glanced at the ironclad man that had pulled her out of her stupor with a slight frown, then quickly shot her gaze to Eota beside him.

"Yes, yes. Do it, of course. Sometimes I think you too careful, Singly. We know what's coming, don't we?" She edged it with a tinge of annoyance, although she didn't mean to be angry at the hero.

"Well, this is royal proceedings. We must follow our etiquette. 'Though our people may rest, the palace shall never, the firm grip must always be so.'" He quoted her kingdom's maxim.

The human soldier beside Eota nodded, a tight, joyless mask on his face. She realized she didn't know who he was.

"Who are you?" She asked.

He looked a bit sheepish, but quickly rolled his shoulder plates forward into attention and barked "Commander Pele, leader of the human tribe of Osfinnia, hailing from the Backcrack mountains."

_Osfinnia? Always naming things weird, those humans. Still, their tribe would make for useful soldiers._

"Are you here for armament too, Commander?" She said.

"If the Princess of the great Kingdom permits," he bowed slightly.

"Very well. I look forward to seeing what the humans are still capable of. They were brave fighters against the Ghost Eater."

"So the stories go." He smiled.

"Right." She signaled for a pen, and signed the two documents with a jumble of strokes.

The three hushed as an attendant collected the papers and hurried out of the room.

Eota sauntered about, marking his way with sliding steel. He stared briefly at a wall-sized map of Ooo, marked up and down with lines and notes, then continued his walk and brought his gaze back to the Princess.

"My fair lady Bubblegum, the Kingdom has the support of the goblin tribes, the human tribe, and the Kingdom guard. However, if we have correctly assessed our enemy, we will need much more support. I have had emissaries dispatched to the Fire, Magic and Warrior Kingdoms. And, ah…" He hesitated, which caused his movement to skip in an odd way and his armor clapped.

"Yes?" The Princess leaned forward, already knowing what bothered him.

"Well, I also had an envoy sent to the Underground. Their royalty made haste in accepting the proposal for a war council." He smoothed out again after a rush of turmoil, easing up upon seeing no irritation in her. He had caught on quick that the Princess did not like the subject of the Underground

Then suddenly the pink of her cheeks flustered red and he grew nervous, thinking her enraged. Inside she was on fire, her mind racing about on hundreds of different tracks yet not a single one in focus. She wondered through it all,

_Why would she still want to be a leader? No way she's still around. She probably has other stuff to do…_

"Did I make a mistake, Princess?" Eota's proud face leaked worry.

She snapped back to the war room, now determined upon a path.

"No, not at all. You were right to contact the Underground, we need each other's assistance. Direly, in fact. I must attend this war council of yours."

Eota looked surprised, but he was glad; he bowed happily and signaled an aide to start the processes. Silence fell on them again and she turned her eyes back towards the corner. The war hero and the human gave each other a glance and simultaneously excused themselves from the room, trailing away with talks of mobilization, readiness. The Princess sat still behind her planning table, idly biting her lip and nodding slightly, hardly noticing the men had gone. Her head was buzzing with the adrenaline of sudden challenges. The complex problems of the war and sadness for her lost souls were pressing down on her as usual, but there was something new arising from a faraway place in her mind. She was nervous, scared, but also excited, happy… The rising thought now shadowed her anxieties of the war and suddenly her whole head became filled with the thrill of an encounter, the mysterious difficulty she might soon face- though not from the fire wielding menace. What hounded over her was the imagined moment of her getting even with a punkish, dirty vampire girl. She giggled a little and smothered her face in her hands.

Was she going crazy?


	4. Chapter 4

Inside a grand volcano the fire wizard of exile, Ignisem, paced in thought. He had heard enough of the peasants' talk through his spy fires to know that there now was an active resistance being plotted against him. Many of these peasants now even had courage that they could defend themselves against his terror.

_Courage from peasants! _

He knew the root of this disease: the goblin war hero Singly Eota and the damned pesky Princess Bubblegum. Together they were drawing the scattered scraps of Ooo's populace into an army. He knew he had to regain his grip of fear on the land lest they forget how powerful he was. Thinking of power caused him to flinch in anger at the thought of his blight- the block to his precious well that was placed on him at the time of exile by his old enemies. Even with the spell fading by its dead caster's power seeping out in a grave, he still was locked away from his full potential. And now, upon finding a solution, his catalyst to revitalization, another block jabbed him in the side - that determined vampire who haunted the Spark Alternator to protect her people.  
_Bah! A vampire protecting her people! What kind of vampire is she? _

But there was no point in mockery, he realized; he had to resolve this issue, there was no other way but the Alternator. He softened the rage in him and reassured himself: no matter how elaborate these unforeseen blots in his grand scheme were, there were ways around them.  
_First, I demonstrate my current power. _He thought, staring down the fumarole he was creeping in. He closed his eyes and imagined pathways. With the power he had already managed to subvert from the Alternator he could utilize his full fire magic, even if his summoning was far from acceptable. He smiled as his mind clicked into a plan.

_I'll burn the lands, so they think I surround them. They won't be able to look at fire without fearing me within it._

Pomp befell the interior of the Candy Kingdom as the Princess' caravan set off from the foot of the palace. The citizens, having cultivated an unhealthy abstract of fear in their homes, were elated to see their Princess on the diplomat's path. To them it meant more allies, better chances, less dead friends. They burst their tension in song and dance and she smiled at their apparent happiness. One could see the desperation there, but she choose not to think so cynically. Enough destructive thoughts already pervaded her usually bridling composure. There were so many things to worry about from the moment of waking these days, and on top of that this unnecessary dwelling about the vampire. She had no idea exactly what was stirred in her when she thought of that dark woman of sinister smirks and cutting laughter, but she was determined to meet her this time as a challenger. Not some haughty doll to be poked and pricked, she would be prepared to give that vampire a piece of her mind if she should want a contest.

She thought then that it must be foolish to be wasting all this thinking time with the idea of getting even, of proving herself to a _dirty burnout party girl. _

_…_

_Where did that come from?  
_She frowned at this thought. Something had made her thrash out a low blow, and it was definitely emotional. Such wild emotion was too dangerous to be wielding alongside the war sword she already swung over Ooo. The Princess resolved to prove herself not a stuffy fluff of air to the vampire lady but then concentrate on the matters at hand: the war. Nothing more should distract her from ensuring the safety of her beautiful people of the land, the people she now stretched a hand out to wave at and raise smiles from.

_Diplomacy._

A halting woke the Princess from a sleepy stupor that had slammed down on her from the heat that the grasslands produced in midday. She poked a head out of the curtain of her carriage and could see soldiers running up and down the convoy, in the distance she saw plumes of smoke from where the great forests lay. Singly Eota broke from the bustle and approached her cabin,

"There is a great fire in the East, it could be from the wizard himself! Attacking in broad daylight- he will certainly regret it!" Eota had that wily heroic look about him.

Bubblegum turned inward to the shade for a moment, rolling over decisions. She came back out and looked to him.

"I can handle these negotiations. Take what soldiers you can from the palace and the tribes and investigate." She said.

He nodded and turned to hark commands at choice soldiers in steel. He began to leave but she tapped his shoulder plate and said,

"thank you, my brave knight." She smiled.

He returned the smile with a glowing grin and roared off towards his horse.

_I hope I didn't lead him on with that. Glob, what wouldn't lead him on._

She laughed.

The sound of trampling hoofs faded away and the familiar rocking of her carriage resumed, heading towards the Hole In The Center Of The Earth, where they would descend down the tunnel into the Underground. She closed her eyes and plunged into thought again.

Another halt jerked the carriage and this time the wakening princess could feel through the heavy moisture that she was no longer in the free air of the surface.

Voices flashed up and down the caravan, horses neighed as they were halted at the end of the line.  
"Make way! Make way!" A voice screeched over the other jumbles of shouting.

She could tell now that they had arrived. What a sudden jump her heart made. She was now in a completely foreign realm that was brimming with (supposed to be) evil creatures. A few doubts ran through her mind about the crop of beasts she was about to make allies with, but she struck them down with a list of trusty affirmations she'd been reciting for weeks.

"Princess, it is safe to step out." It was the voice she'd been waiting to here.

She broke through the fabric and took the waiting goblin soldier's hand, casting out a serene face to the gathering crowd. He led her up the caravan to its tip where a wedge of armored men cut clear ground out of the crowd, isolating two ghostly representatives. She nodded as she made her way towards them, then rested ten paces away, back to the lead wagon. The goblin soldier that was entrusted by Eota to act his replacement began the royal dialogue, a bunch of gobbledygook that seemed to soothe no one in sight. The Princess observed the formal ghosts from behind her diplomat: for all their regal air she could see the undertones of stress and fear, and something in their form's glow reminded her of a sick candyperson whose rich color had faded sour. She turned up her chin at the mention of an agreement, nodded in unison with the ghosts and with that the dialogue was finished and the ghosts seeped back into the crowd.  
"So, we get to go back to the hotel now?" She said to the replica Eota.

"Haha, I call firsts in the hot tub." He joked back, turning to her.

The crowd about them started to waver and disperse, hovering back towards the ever-present drone of rock music that leaked from the distance. He gave a subtle glance to the Strip, and bit his lip as if suppressing interest.

"They've offered an empty building beside their Council Hall for our temporary camp. Unfortunately it's right next to all that damned racket. They apologize for the noise but, there is really nothing to be done." He said as he shuffled through paperwork that was being steadily handed to him by an aide.

"That's fine, knight. Let's get set up as soon as possible, something about this place makes me incredibly tired…" She threw her hand up to can a wide yawn.

"Ah, well, m'lady, we actually have been asked to join their council session. You… Agreed to it just now."

"Hmm, oh yeah. See, I'm rather tired… We're not diving into the war talk just yet, are we?" They started moving back to a carriage that would take them towards the Strip.

"Ah? Well, maybe not. It seems like it will be a lot logistics… I can handle most of the dialogue if you wish, m'lady."

"We'll see who shows up." She said lightly.

He glanced over in brief confusion, but pulled out of it to hop forward and open the carriage door for her. They both stuffed into the cabin of the transport, sitting across from each other. He immediately forgot her curious response and dove into the paperwork that he had been carrying; she turned her head to a crack in the curtains and returned to her plains of thought.

_So… We're riding to the battlefield. _An excited, nervous smile was drawn on her face.

_I'm not ready, I'm not ready, I'm not ready…_


	5. Chapter 5

The council had whipped into a furious production once word that the visitors from the Candy Kingdom had arrived in the Underground. It was almost as if the ghosts felt like they were suddenly being watched from over their shoulders. Marceline couldn't be bothered with the frantic air; she had found an escape in an anteroom in the back that was musty and dark. Stretched out over a couch, her black cap over her eyes, she sighed tiredly. Her mind was racing with so many things that she couldn't relax even now, but at least she had managed to escape that round table in the main hall that reeked of seriousness. She had spent the last 3 days at the edge of that table, yammering in strict, stuffy language with the ghosts. They were nothing but neurotic wisps of air, she concluded. They were all deathly afraid of fading, determined that it would happen. They were so used to relying on their sole judgment that the only conclusion they could now foresee was the doom that haunted them. And even with their newfound cooperation, the ghosts still struggled with trusting her counsel. They were not alone in this problem of selfishness, either: every creature out there had only ever fought for itself and would turn their head in confusion at the mention of any 'community' within the Underground. Vampires basically typified this deficiency. Another problem, too, was that these creatures couldn't feel the impending danger like the ghosts; though susceptible to death, their version of immortality was not dependent on a source, a mechanism. If Marceline couldn't rally them, if they really were as cold as they prided themselves on being…  
"Ugh!"

She flailed in the air, and pulled the black cap down on her face in anger.

In her frustration the same old challenge floated into her mind:

_Why do I even care?_

But something about her tiredness, her desperation, or maybe even something about the anticipatory air made a new response come up in a way that couldn't be ignored: _I want to impress her._

She wheeled around in the air violently, as if trying to find the owner of the voice who had dared to utter such an idea. However, upon settling, she conceded that it was truth- probably even truer than most of the things she'd been thinking recently. This thought deeply planted, she had hardly ever considered it the reason to why the Princess had so often bubbled up into her thoughts since they had briefly crossed paths long ago.

_I want to impress her._

She pondered it with full focus then, noting with surprise the leniency that her normally ungainly pride was giving her. Defiant of the dark confliction that raged in her mind, her face leaked a smile. Things were feeling different now, just like that sweet smelling day 2 years ago. She felt liberated from the fiery demeanor that gave her the respect she craved from others but also had slowly infected her mind with callousness. Her body was blowing up with adrenaline, reacting to this new challenge. She realized that beneath all the real, scary fears that had driven her back to this royal responsibility, there laid a subtle but even more emotional force that was compelling her. And the wind of that force was arriving at the door in minutes.

The noise started slowly, then quickly tumbled faster into a racket that awoke Marceline from her nap. She floated up to see the scene in the great room beside her. At the entrance was a swelling of ghosts blended into one long band of murky white that splashed against a collection of taller, firmer bodies whose colors danced about in the low light. She caught quick winks of pink from the dead center of the mass of beings and became fully awake with anticipation. Standing well within the darkness she did a quick adjustment of her clothes and smoothed out her hair with her hands, then made sure her mind was closely focused on her personality, the snarky vampire girl.

_Having to make sure I'm me? What's happening to my head?  
_All of this was so new, she would never have enough time to be prepared for it. She decided to default to her stony toughness and react from there. She edged up to the exit of the backroom, trying to catch the talk while still being hidden in shadows. A formal dialogue was being exchanged…

"If the Princess may, we have made ample accommodation for the Candy Kingdom's royal staff at the Round Table of Council. Our Royal Representative should be here soon, we cannot find her at present…"

The opaque ghost was humming small talk to the Princess, biding time. His companions that jammed together around him kept shooting glances about with clear worry. Bubblegum also joined the other ghosts in glancing around, although she dared not move her head lest she arose anyone to her nervous eyes. He motioned then for her procession to join the Council's table and she led the clambering for seats. Eota's substitute shot through the crowd to secure a spot on her right, she turned to acknowledge him and he irked out a smile while sifting through an explosion of parchment. She almost picked up a conversation with him to escape the brimming tension of the room, but she recognized it would only be cruel to him and childish of her. Renewed stiffness swelled in the space of waiting, threatening to drown her, but she rode the heat inside her with a defiant intensity and she found her mind successfully quiet and focused. The princess turned away from her aide now and firmly planted herself in her chair, lifting her head and setting her entire body into a cone of light. In the yellow wash her face glowed a burning pink and her eyes flashed with a warrior intensity, her mouth was long and taut. The suited ghosts took in the power of her presence in the light, many of them stirred loudly, like they had finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

Bubblegum began her speech with a firm blast of air from her chest,

"Leaders of the Underground, today we congregate for the purpose of…"

Bubblegum's words broke as a streak of grey and black melted into the light and everyone shifted to look. Marceline flashed a toothy grin as she wound around the table and took a seat directly across from the princess.

"Ah, Princess Bubblegum, here is—"

"Shut up." Marceline snapped at the ghost who had started to speak beside her, then grinned wide. "Hello, Bonnibelle."  
The way she smoothed it out across the table hushed the entire room. The crowd had first been reeling in disarray at the abrupt silence from the princess, but now quickly became fixated on the strangely casual air between the two royal figures. Bubblegum quickened up into a firm pose again and threw her wits back into gear.

"Ah… You stuck around then? Is someone else in charge or is this going to be…annoying?" She laced playful venom in her words, keeping a rigid image in her chair.

"I'm not here to play this time. Drop the grudge and do your job, Princess." Marceline returned, a quietly solemn look now came on her face.

The princess could have smiled then, realizing she had adjusted well to this brazen style of exchange and could now even see Marceline's defense being drawn. The vampire had taken a bold step into the room, but now sat with a smaller presence. The attention shifted back to the Princess and the contest began.

"Very well, vampire." She said and motioned for her goblin adviser to push over the itinerary.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N WOW I somehow forgot to upload this part and uploaded the next chapter instead. No wonder my chapters were off! Sorry about that, you probably noticed a really confusing jump in between 6/7. But it's fixed now!**

The intellect in the Princess was fascinated at the foreign science that was slowly warming to her. The vampire kept her word and hadn't strayed from the subject of the war since their wild introduction, but, as expected, she was playing by her own rules. Marceline's words, though understood by everyone in the room to be vital war talk, carried hidden sneers for the Princess to unpack. At first it was subtle, but once the Princess caught on and retorted with double edged lines of her own it had quickly tumbled into a thinly veiled contest.

"Do you think we aren't capable? There's more to us than what you expect. We have many surprises. Can you say that about yourself?" Marceline said.  
She was, of course, referring to the Princess' mention of rumors about the Underground's disorganization. Bubblegum squinted.

_Totally deflected my jabs at her dysfunction. Now she brings it back to me with the same old tease. Damn her wits, where do I go now? _

This particular exchange was the furthest they had detached from the linear dialogue of war talk and now they were selfishly immersed in this petty mind game.

The two royal woman kept the whole Council in sweaty impatience, but neither cared in the slightest. Moans and sighs occasionally stirred from the ghosts, but the women's stark indifference had killed any further dares to their rage. Bubblegum was biting her lip ever so slightly, diagnosing the correct words to employ.

"There's quite a difference between being exciting and being interesting. To be interesting, enduring, one also must be fulfilling. You seem to miss that we have quite the responsibility, or… Is that easy to forget for you?" Bubblegum said with a keen half smile. The façade of war talk was quivering.

"Hm." Marceline chuckled lightly. "Seeming interesting doesn't save you from being a total bore, _Princess_." The façade was shattered.

"I'd rather be your definition of boring then a screw-up!" The Princess shot up from her seat in a rage.

"Oh, so you_ are_ perfect then?" Marceline snapped from across the table, whipping her eyes from a view of a dark corner towards the Princess who was stooping over the table.

Bubblegum fumed under the harsh light, completely unaware of the shocked crowd about her. In an unplanned moment, her raging eyes met Marceline's fierce gaze and she locked onto the vampires piercing silver flames. In that pause the tension in the room seemed to suck away, the heat of rage falling out. It was like they had both been inflating a balloon with their bickering and, upon shaking out across its limits, it had shattered in a quick snap. And as it died away they both came to see each other's surprised faces tilting on the edge of laughter.

"This is silly" Bubblegum half-whispered, and they shared an unfettered laugh.

The council seemed to sigh as the two women laughed at themselves, knowing that the frightening standoff had dissolved into some odd friendliness. Only few wondered still about the deeper context of the interaction- most of them were simply glad to have it over with. Slightly embarrassed now, Bubblegum motioned for her goblin aide to wrap up the dialogue and finish the meeting. She leaned back out of the light and sighed, exhausted from the event. There was a lot to meditate on, especially how disgustingly eager she had been to jump into the fires of emotion, seeking that vampire's throat. Presently, she glanced up to peek at Marceline who was also sitting back in the shadows.

From the dark, Marceline allowed herself to smile and indulge in the moment. The world around her was vibrating like all was new and fun. Her body still blazed with the adrenaline of the standoff, but her head matched it equally with activity.

_She is…_

Marceline didn't want to get distracted, the path she now could see herself taking required all her focus. To dabble too long would spoil the spontaneity of the moment and would flag the courage she was quietly winding up inside her.

_Exciting…_

She darted her eyes towards the darkness where the Princess was sitting, her heart jumped.

_I can't let her just leave… I have to do something about this._

Marceline started repeating this over and over to hold out her courage as the hearing slowly dragged to a close by boring men who looked just as eager to spring from their seats. In the ensuing chaos of the adjournment she slowly made her way around the circle, keeping to the shadows as she waited for the Princess to finish the conversations that were lined up in front of her. A ghost broke out of the haze and confronted Marceline.

"I hope you know we got _nothing_ solved today due to your little game." He whined, squinting at her.  
She looked at him, contemplated lashing out in anger, but quickly shot her glance back to the Princess. Seeing her still safe within the Hall, she turned to the ghost again with a cold look,

"I'm the one that's going to be fighting here, ghosty. So if you're not gonna be risking your life, you're also not going to be deciding which battles I fight. Why don't you just go off and grovel, seeing as you're not good for much else, hm?"

He scoffed and shook his head, muttering to himself as he floated back into the crowd. She watched him fade away, smirking at the excitable vigor she was running with. However, her pride drained the instant she glanced to see the doors of the Hall spilled out and the visitors nowhere in sight. She cursed her gloating self and tried to push her way through the crowd, felt it tightening as they slowly moved towards the exit. She was truly scared that she might lose her chances of continuing the night and wildly battered the ghosts to break out, skimming across the table in a desperate dash for the exit.

The princess shut her door with a weight of finality, slouching over into a plush chair that was carefully placed next to her travelling vanity. She could have crushed it were it not for the nice furniture to bring her in. Her head flopped into a corner of the chair and she let her limbs lay as they had sprawled out. However, even with the exhaustion of travel and the day's wild events, her mind wouldn't give her rest. She twitched and squirmed around the chair, trying to shake the thoughts that assaulted her. With the dose of her tiredness, the thoughts came in jumbles. Everything that happened today was too dramatic, too fast, too… emotional.

That word had acquired a malicious vibration to her mind recently. It had always been a concept to be stowed away when she wore the crown, but now she wore the crown as she pushed against herself and writhed in pain. Her personal purging of emotion was coming back to haunt her, for all of it flooded her mind and she had no grasp on how to define it. Did she feel angry? Accomplished? Or was it disappointment? It was as if she were trying to catalogue individual grains of sand that sat atop a heap she held in her hands- all the while lying on a beach. Everything around her was unfamiliar- she was shivering in the trap of her own mind. With half dim eyes she looked through an open window in front of her to see the brilliantly white moon that was framed in the great hole they had descended from. An aching for the surface struck her.

She squeezed her eyelids together and tried to find a quiet place above the storm, but it wouldn't help long. Behind her a shuttered window jiggled and creaked open with the slight touch of a pale hand. Someone cleared their throat from the outside air into the interior. A rush of hot blood jolted the Princess, she knew of only one person who would dare to breach her privacy.

"Ahem, your guards are annoying." The expected sweet swing of Marceline's voice echoed in lightly.

_She chose the furthest window back, was she being cautious? _The Princess wondered.  
_Dang, she wasn't in bed. _Marceline frowned, still hidden behind the folded panels. She tapped a panel and set it upwards.

"Princess?" She ventured.

With this long of a pause she was losing her pacing and getting less confident. What could be-

"Oh? Who's at my window?" Bubblegum called out, pitching her voice with just enough surprise to seem freshly awake.

Marceline deepened her frown, it was the second time today her smooth intro had been foiled.

"Oh I was just saying how incompetent your guards are. They ask too many questions." Marceline said, turning within the cover of the panels to see Bubblegum's shadow billowing from another open view of the moonlight.

The Princess was sitting dead upright in her chair, tilting her head with forced awareness, casting a very fine outline.

"The meeting is over, what are you doing here?" She flatly said from the chair, but glanced back quickly. She saw nothing but darkness and cursed silently.  
Marceline saw Bubblegum reel around by the shadow play, it was a sort of signal that allowed her to silk her two legs in through the window. She still sat deep in the shadows, but she was in. She brushed across the bed, seemingly unknowing, and the creaks brought Bubblegum's awareness to the enclosing distance. She quietly slipped off her chair during a brief racket coming from a nearby pack of drunks down on the street. She now stood on the floor, keeping to a shadow.

"Marceline…" She distractedly said, trying to whisper as harshly as possibly.

"Oh yah, well I was going to ask you something…" Marceline stopped at the end of the bed and tilted a little into a shard of light, then swerving back again into the shadows. The Princess had seen only a flash of teeth and scarlet red lips.

"But you left. And your guards…. Well you know." Her milky eye whites reflected off the pillar of light.

"I didn't know you required me." The Princess stood rigid beside her chair.

"Heh. Well, it was just a question..." The vampire warmed up, coming into the direct moonlight.

Black leather flickered in the bone glow of the moon, then there were boots, straps, and wolfish grey eyes. Bubblegum unconsciously widened her eyes as she took in all of the view, her blood flying through her veins.

"Wha-t is your question?" She said, rocking back slightly.

"Well… If you're not too tired I was going to invite you somewhere… A place we could discuss things we missed today?" Marceline said, hooking up her voice at the end.  
Betraying the tension in her question, Marceline popped up into the air and settled leaning back, relaxed. Her eyes awaited the answer.

Bubblegum pulled back for a second, trying to regain her composure. Many thoughts lined up at the end of the haze of confusion, but a simpler reply leaked out of her mouth in indulgence.

"Okay." She said, smiling internally at Marceline's quiet shock. The vampire had not expected such a quick response.

"Hah. Well- okay then, Princess. You may follow me." She motioned with her limbs.

There was nothing much else to do but follow her.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Sorry I missed uploading a chapter in between 5 and 6! So chapter 6 is new, go check it out! Sorry, I bet it was a really confusing jump in between them :P Can't believe I made a stupid mistake like that.**

The night was blurs and noise. It was a short walk to Marceline's club of choosing, but the Princess stretched it out with furious pondering. They hardly talked, only uttering quaint comments when the beastly patrons would cause a stir nearby. The silence was nice, they found. There was no rigidity dragging itself between them, only a sweet electricity that compelled them deeper into the night. Bubblegum felt that spontaneity, and gave up her algorithmic thought process for it. She brushed her hair back to see Marceline looking over, who reared her head away awkwardly and swung her arms out to frame the approaching building.

"Hey! This is it!" She said, fumbling slightly in the air.

Bubblegum chuckled and followed closely as they entered two great red doors, stepping into the bowels of the raging club. With a flash of a hand, a red rope was lifted and the two were escorted down into a deep trench of velvety plush. Marceline chose a table in the middle near a break of stairs that led down into the jumbled noise of the dance floor. Another motion of her hand sent off their escort in the direction of the bar. Bubblegum raised her eyebrows and settled back into the plush, flicking a smile to the vampire.

"This is my favorite band." Marceline motioned with her head to the center of the horrific noise in the club. "The Porcelain Saints."

"Hm. Charming name." The princess drawled, frowning slightly.

"Sinners rock the best, Princess." Marceline smirked, taking two drinks from the returning escort.

The princess gently eyeballed the drinks: two red cocktails spotted with bundles of emulsifying liquids, the rims drifting off red vapor in the lights of the club. Marceline extended a hand with one of the brewing mixes, and Bubblegum trembled a little bit at the challenge. She was not a drinker in the least- there was a glass of wine, months ago after a long day in the lab… Screw it. She snatched it after the slight hesitation and tested it with a light sip. A refreshing mist of sensation tickled her cheeks and it burned in the sweetest way.  
"This is excellent! The pairfectory of the dark jambowinga and sweet strawberry extract is spot on. What's it called?" She asked, holding the glass loftily in front of her face.

"Marcy's mix." Marceline said, smiling. She took a deep swig, draining it, then motioned for another.

"So that's what you do? You're a bartender?" The Princess asked, sipping.

"No way! Uh- I do a lot of stuff… But I'm mostly a musician." Marceline said, smoothing back out behind her cocktail.

_Ugh, you're so obvious. _Marceline cursed herself inside, sipping at the new cocktail, hoping it would iron out her nerves.

"Oh, so you're an artist?" Bubblegum said, looking keen.

"Yeah? What of it?" Marceline countered, overly snarky.

"Oh. Just curious…" The princess looked away towards the dance floor.

Marceline imagined kicking herself in the crotch.

_Stop acting like a dumbass, _she repeated in her head. There was a few beats of silence before Marceline leaned back in with a new plan of action.

"Everything in here is covered in velvet… Kinda kinky, huh?" Marceline sneered.

"Marceline! That's so distasteful!" The Princess scoffed, but after a pause her flimsy disgust melted into a smile.

They laughed together then, in a playful way. It was a moment that told the princess much about herself. She laughed at her obvious act, playing the haughty doll for the joke, and it felt good to play this role. But she was confused by the way the vampire had been shifting in and out of character all night. Sometimes she was that familiarly abrasive, confident rebel, but in other moments she was moody and contemplative, and deathly serious. There were so many layers to her…

The best equations are those yet unsolved.

Marceline continued her poking after the laugh, confidence restored,

"Don't tell me the pretty little princess is back? That would make tonight no fun. Where is that fire from the meeting?" She took a slow sip from her cocktail, waiting for the reply.

"Hm. We must've switched roles. Where was the snarky loudmouth _vamp_ girl? I didn't know you could stand not hearing your own voice for more than five seconds." The Princess said devilishly.

In a split second, Bubblegum caught a pang of hurt that flashed in Marceline's face just before a sharp grin slammed over it, like high tide on sandy footprints. The princess then saw she held a longer sword then Marceline, if Marceline even held one here, and it was poking her hard. How odd, Bubblegum thought, that Marceline seemed so affected by the princess' insults- it was a small victory Bubblegum was not enjoying as much as she had thought she would. She wondered if she should slow down, but hesitated on being too reflective, fearing losing her wit and the ground she'd gained. She scrambled to clear this weird pause,

"What are you thinking about?" She said, looking the way Marceline had turned her head.

Marceline thought on this half-moment before her response; she was fed up with her emotion and tired of the mocking game they had been playing for hours. She had to act on this feeling, she needed to know if it was returned. It was time for another leap. She dipped her head slightly and slanted her eyes over to the princess with a smirk. The princess shyly broke a little smile when Marceline kept firm eye contact.

"…I was wondering about the likelihood of you ever having danced before." Marceline said.

"ah, hah…" Bubblegum's cheeks turned a red even deeper than the ambient light of the club.

"Of course! Infrequently, though." She regained her composure, flicking her chin back towards the vampire.

Marceline grinned. "It doesn't count if you were alone, you know."

Bubblegum frowned, the only memories she could recall of her dancing most definitely occurred alone, in her private chambers, with the entire floor that held her room vacated under strict orders. Her heart began to race now, she knew what Marceline was insinuating. She scraped for courage in her already exhausted mind and boldly reconnected eyes with the vampire.  
Marceline began, "Do you wa-"

"Yes. Let's do it." Bubblegum said firmly, and shot up from her seat.

"Ah hah." Marceline laughed as she titled up to stand next to her.

Carefully, she walked the princess down the stairs and into the sea of people, glancing back with a smirk to see Bubblegum fighting to look calm among the other dancers.

Out in the hectic mess of the dance floor, Marceline could revel in confidence. The sheer power of the jumbling music etched away her tension and she swung her hips wide, laughing. Bubblegum wobbled, trying to find a way to move her body gracefully.

_I should've drank more of that mix. _She quietly glanced back to the table, missing the safety of the red plush couch. The princess knew Marceline had done a smart thing by throwing her out into this crazy mess.

_Oh, that old calculation…_ She shook her head and concentrated on dancing, she couldn't lose her cool after all she had done. The blasting music struck her harshly, but much like the cocktail it slapped yet soothed. Once she started to move with it she felt pulled into a lofty joy. The vampire was thrashing about, throwing looks at Bubblegum every now and then to laugh. It wasn't planned, but as they both fell into the groove of the music they also started falling into each other.

Marceline's slamming body first felt like spitting fire, but it slowly melted into a sweet, lulling caress. Bubblegum jumped in her skin and tried to twist away, but found her arms useless. The vampire wrapped her long, black leather arms over Bubblegum's shoulders, skimming her fingers through the soft, pink hair. A sensation flittered through the princess. She felt like the melting wax of a candle. A revelation wicked in her brain and she knew then what all the fuss had been for, all those confusing thoughts and non-thoughts. Out of the two ladies, neither had come for a contest- despite all the words. Though unknowingly at times, both had come for a dance: the dance that they now rolled in, limbs twining around each other. Words had left them now, they had no need. Bubblegum gripped Marceline's sides: _I'm stupid, I didn't realize!_

Marceline wrapped an arm around the small of her back and pulled her deep into her shining leather: _it's fine._

Bubblegum slid her head up in the tight grip and they locked eyes. Her right hand gripped onto the black leather on Marceline's back, she yanked on the jacket.

The vampire, in unflagging emotion, cupped the blushing princess' face in a pale hand. The tiniest smile was on Marceline's face, and a thousand words could be read from it.

Another pulse of music sent them careening about, melting together.


	8. Chapter 8

_I hope the Princess is fine._

Singly Eota was doting on his horse, staring blankly off into the endless waves of grassland in front of him. Little avenues of smoke still passed along the horizon as the remaining fires burned out in the broken forest behind him. His attention had strayed from the extinguishing effort comprised of a fine strap of locals. Nearby, they whapped tirelessly at the claw of blackened stumps that still smoldered with lava heat. An aide named Nirbai was hovering beside the goblin hero on a lean lemon pony, wringing his hands on the grip of a sheathed sword. He looked on the edge of speaking, but Eota's intentional aloofness had kept him quiet for most of the drudging hours.

The prince of war pulled out of his daydreaming abruptly by a rising sound. Next, his horse reared in an ugly surprise and he spent several seconds blinking in confusion. The rising sound now bubbled and popped loudly in his ears. A blast of heat hit him then, and the horse huffed painfully.

"Prince!"

Several voices barked over the next few seconds of pure noise, but Eota left them behind to wield his full attention towards the falling floor of the grassland in front of him. Another blast of sweltering wind strafed him as he dismounted his horse and he fought to keep calm readiness as he witnessed the entire stretch of land melt into a boiling pit of lava. Soldiers swung onto his flank, swords already drawn towards the scene. Suddenly, two raging jets of fire shot from the lava pool. They whirled towards the formation of soldiers.

"Break off!" A decorated guard on Eota's shoulder cried.

Eota rolled through the ensuing firestorm, coming to his feet again with his sword whipping through the air. He swept a hand through his hip pouch and broke a vial against the flat of his sword's blade, the steel became stained blue and he tested the flame shield potion by cutting through a column of lava. It broke clean apart and the Prince dove through the buffer of cool air, escaping the web of fiery tendrils. Looking back he saw most of his guard fighting with their own blue swords, unfortunate others were screaming in pain as they saw their flesh melt into pools of fluid against the fire. Someone was calling through the howling wind, but their attention was pulled immediately back towards the fight. Eota came fully out of the attacking fire and now prepared a flame shield over his entire body. He followed the coat of blue with smatterings of ashbutter salve, then, belting out a roar of excitement, jumped forward into the boiling pool of lava.

It was a convulsing depth of hell, but he quickly found his footing on two pillars of fountaining lava. He squinted through the vortexes of twisting magic, trying to keep his balance in the whirlpool of pressure winds that circuited around him. In front of him, beset in the fiercest light he'd ever seen, was a darkened figure. Eota gasped from his uneasy position close towards the apex of trembling fire, recognizing it as the fire wizard in a heap of bright robes. The fire wizard stared from under his deep hood, his eyes glowing like two white suns. They slid down into concentration as he spotted the audacious hero who had dared such an approach. Eota saw the figure convulse and he leaped blurrily in a counter direction. He luckily landed on another pillar top of lava as his previous position was drowned in a flurry of thrown fire. Through the ensuing railing of noise he calculated several weaknesses in the wizard's thick robes of protection, but was torn out of thought by another wave of fire coming his way. Shuffling onto another pillar top he came back to his observations: while the wizard pulled the lava up from its depths and combined the streams above his head, a long fold in the robes revealed a curious depth. Inside the fold was a brighter light that pulsated in the familiar thump and catch rhythm of a heartbeat. The goblin recognized it as his only potential weakness. He battered off a light attack of fire with a swoosh of his sword, then returned his concentration back to his plan of action.

"So you're their new hero, then?" A crumbling voice blew through the whipping fumes, it was clear and struck Eota solidly.

"What do you want from us, menace?" The hero prince puffed up his chest in courage, he swung his sword down from in front of him towards his feet.

"Always this question. Always this brave little boy in front of me."

Ignisem started to advance with a casual stride, and pillars of fire spouted up to form stepping stones for his long steps. He stopped a few paces from Eota, just outside of swinging range.

"A boy may have come to face you in the past, but I am a prince before you." Eota said, swinging his blade in a graceful fashion. It glittered in the blaze of fire.

"Oh, I've faced Princes, and I've killed many. But today I won't kill you." The evil eyes flicked like hungry candle flames. "I want you to tell your precious Princess of the true power of Ignisem- or, better yet…"  
The wizard jumped to Eota, who reacted with a violent thrust of his sword. Ignisem produced a spiral of fire that enveloped the blade, ravaging it with intense heat. The blue of the flame shield slowly started to peel away from the steel, crumbling into little shreds. With the magic of the shield gone, the sword quickly melted into a curvy goo. The spiral of fire advanced onto Eota's hand, spinning with a terrifying intensity. The wizard's face was ablaze with delight, his teeth clacked together in a manic grin. Eota fell to his knees, screaming in pain. He whipped his hand from the spiral of fire, seeing it now a black stump through crying eyes. The pain racked him with staggering convulsions and he lost his focus, falling down onto the pillar that suspended him above the lava pit.

"Now for one last adjustment, and then Ooo will see what their _dashing_ Prince is compared to me." The wizard's visage twisted in a laugh.

He reached out to the war hero's face, gripping it with strong fingers. The shield quavered against the raging heat until it broke with a snap, leaving the skin exposed. Eota let out another shriek of pure pain as the firm grip of fire pressed into him, searing the skin into a flaky crust. The scream fell out of chest and he lost his will, going totally limp. Ignisem collected the broken hero in his arms and tossed him up onto the surface of the grasslands. The goblin soldiers hurriedly came to the crumpled body, yelling at each other in confusion. As they began to pull him away towards safety, one of them looked back into the pit of lava: it lay still now, a flat pool of glowing fire. The wizard menace was gone, having made his mark.


	9. Chapter 9

"You really want me to wear _this_ shirt?" The princess said.

The shirt was a joke in itself- it must've been. She held it up in the light, twisting up her face in scrutiny. It was just a skinny black tee with a whole mess of unserious ideas on it. Snakes in front of a river, kebobs with… burnt marshmallows? They supposedly purchased it on the night of the concert, waiting an hour in the merch line. But all the princess could now recall of that night was Marceline's face- oh, and Marceline's body lined silver by the moonlight. That striking image was grinning in front of her now.

"Yes! Since you liked the band I got it for you, y'know..." She said, scratching her left arm and looking away.

It had been two days since their dance, two hectic days full of suffocating decisions and flurries of council sessions. Now that dance flickered in the back of her head like a candlelit shrine. A warm memory to collapse back into when overwhelmed with the weight of the war, but not a place to stay too long lest the still confused emotions tumbled into a wall of noise against her composure. This was the first time the princess and vampire had been allowed privacy since that night, though it was not as eventful as the princess had been expecting- it was mostly just hazy. Marceline was clearly doting on many things, eyes hovering on nothing particular, intimidating in her silence.

"How was your last council session?" Bubblegum ventured, leaning back into the plush chair by her vanity, she draped the t-shirt across her chest.

"Not…very good." Marceline said, staring out the slits of a shuttered window in front of Bubblegum.

"I heard you have a new nickname? Marceline the vampire queen?" The princess said, yawning slightly at the end.

"Egh." The vampire threw a hand into her forehead, gritting her teeth. "Those stupid vamps. So damn stubborn. All I'm trying to do is protect them and their home and they say I'm scraping for attention!"

"I'm sorry, Mar. I didn't mean to bring that stuff up…" Bubblegum slid up in her chair, like she was trying to reach out to the brooding vampire.

"Is that your new nickname for me?" Marceline said, smiling.

The princess was relieved to hear warmth in her voice, and the joy in it made her heart leap around. Marceline turned from the window to face Bubblegum full and the princess delighted in the sensual view of the vampire's sharp body in a black beater and skin-tight jeans. Suddenly, the stuffy fatigue was wiped clean and a swelling of heat pulsed through the princess. She smiled back, staring intently into Marceline. A different smile broke on the vampire's face and her eyes looked in a hungry way, causing the air between them to blaze recklessly, like a pot boiling over.

A knock tore through the tension in the air, coming from a frantic assistant at the Princess' door.

"Right on cue, huh…" Marceline grumbled, flitting out an open window into the night air.

The Princess glanced back to see the vampire wash away into obscurity, staring longingly at the last wisp of her shadow through the fog. Biting down a wide frown she opened the door to the aide. He stammered for a few seconds before collecting his senses.

"P-princess. It is extremely dire. It's about Prince Eota…"

A makeshift caravan fell around the Princess's carriage as it prepared a trip to the Underground's infirmary. The guards were on the edge of a long weariness, trying hard to pull themselves out of the sleep they had just been wrapped in. A goblin in prominent decorum broke through the ring of steel, rapping on the door of her carriage.

"Good Princess, I am the goblin Nirbai, Eota's second-in-command. I wish to speak with you, if you allow." He said after the knock.

"Come in." She replied.

He hastily threw himself into the cabin as it jolted to a start.  
"It is very nice to meet you, Princess. Unfortunately, we are meeting under very strenuous circumstances" The goblin produced a stack of frazzled papers, seemingly out of thin air, and started scanning over them. He continued without looking up,

"We were ambushed in the grasslands by the fire wizard. He seemed to be unac-"

"Is Eota one of the survivors?" The princess quested firmly, hovering on the edge of her seat in tension.

"Yes. We are going to see him now. He is fine, although quite burned. In more ways than one." Nirbai returned his eyes back to the papers, sifting through them quickly.

He exclaimed lightly upon finding a particular sheet of parchment, licking the tip of his right index finger and pulling it from the pile. The Princess observed the curious nature of the letter as he placed it into her hands: the weight and appearance of it indicated that it was made of hardened lava, slimmed down to paper width. In the center of the black rectangle arose two paragraphs of writing, wicking with vivid light. The words were cutaways into the core of the hardened lava, which was fresh and flowing.

"This document was found on Eota's person when we recovered him after the fight. We believe the fire wizard wanted this message to reach you."

The princess focused onto the paper, and the letters jumped with burning intensity to her. It began,

My fires have been rising and they know no heed

Your hero was no match,

No match, no match,

They have always been burning, there was never a need.

You have been playing blindly in the palm of my hand

No wick, no wick.

I am the doctor of your sick

And death is the cure for your land.

-The Fire Lord Ignisem

"Ah…" The Princess mused, tossing the block of obsidian to her side.

Nirbai glanced at her with a flick of intensity, then returned his eyes to his papers. The Princess also stole a glance across the cabin, calculating his expression with bristling focus. Even though this sudden revelation had thrown her into a panic, she knew she dared not leak even a hint of the horror that brewed in her. This assistant, though assuredly loyal, was still a goblin and they were known to be fantastic gossipers before any other notable ability. Once he was soothed and had returned fully to his work she shifted away and let the panic swell over her.

_Ignisem._

The dots connected, and in front of her the fire wizard blazed into sharp focus in her mind. His form came from all manners of reference- horror stories, mythic legends, historical accounts. Sometimes he was a wizard of total rage, in other telling's a twisted fallen king bent on destroying his domain. In whatever medium his likeness was carried through, there was always a consistent theme: he came from the dark beginnings, flowing out with the fire itself- an elemental force.

_Is this it? The end of my Kingdom?_

The Princess placed a hand to her mouth, fighting the urge to collapse into a nervous seizure.

"We're here." Nirbai said, throwing his papers into their case and hoisting himself up from the deep couch.

The Princess nodded, allowing him to exit first, then quietly collected herself in the dark corner of the carriage. She took his dark green hand as she hopped down to the dark, foggy floor of the Underground, and together they entered the infirmary amongst a convoy of armed guards. The infirmary was a derelict building, built long ago by some unknown mason for another purpose. It was a long half cylinder, with the back end completely blown out. The hole was covered by panels of blankets in an attempt at beautification, though not much could be done for it. With vampire's healing abilities and the ghost's immunity to injury, the infirmary was never given any attention by the municipality. They slowly approached the end of the long hall, where a large cluster of machinery marked the war hero's asylum.

Singly Eota turned his head wearily to the Princess, who forced down a gasp at the sight of his marred face. A large bubbling scar ripped across his forehead, the tortured skin glistening under the candlelight of the improvised hospital.

"Is that you, Princess?" Eota said, the swollen skin had pushed over his eyes and temporarily blinded him.

"Oh, my hero! I am so sorry!" Bubblegum rushed up to him and grasped his hand, squeezing it affectionately.

Eota spilled a smile that couldn't be bridled, and squeezed back on her hand.

"It's okay, Princess. I will be just fine. A medicine woman is coming from beyond the Rock Candy Mountains-" he stopped as a great wave of pain hit him, pulsing from the stump of his severed hand.

A candy nurse rushed through Bubblegum and Nirbai, frantically adjusting knobs on the machinery. After a minute of tense breaths, Eota soothed out again and turned his head back over.

"…We must discuss this Ignisem, Princess. He is much more powerful than we think."

"I know. I've read all of the stories. But… Are you sure it is _the_ Fire Lord? He was nothing but a mythical villain from the wild birth years of Ooo…" The Princess said, letting her anxiety leak.

"I've heard the stories. The elders of my village told many times the tale of the Fire Lord Ignisem and the first goblin wizard Gambley dueling in the Lost Cliffs… I know certainly it is he. He is the genuine. I can _feel _that power he commands. He is the fire." Underneath the black and red puffs of skin the beady eyes of the war hero glittered, a tight frown on his face marked his inner turmoil.  
The Princess glanced to Nirbai, who raised his eyebrows in response.

"We can defeat him. Your aide here has recently informed me that most of Ooo's kingdom's have already agreed to our alliance. Your sacrifice has moved the people to action." Bubblegum said, smiling warmly.

"I have not yet made my sacrifice, Princess." Eota turned his head away.

The Princess glanced nervously again to Nirbai.

"Well, take care my brave prince. You will be well soon." Bubblegum said, backing away towards the line of armored guards behind her.

Eota discreetly motioned for Nirbai to stay beside the bed as the Princess headed the procession out of the infirmary. He knelt down close, bringing his ear to the Prince's swollen lips.

"What is it, my Prince?" Nirbai whispered.

"Do you have any more reports on the lady vampire?" Eota huffed into his ear.

"Ah, yes…" Nirbai reached into his case that was set beside him on the stone floor, bringing out a piece of paper that he began to quietly read to the prince.

"An anonymous tip from a member of the royal guard details two new instances of the vampire Marceline entering the Princess' royal housing in addition to the first night. One yesterday morning and another this morning. I indeed noticed a black flash at her windows when we came to collect her today."

Eota deepened his frown, fast shots of air squeezed out of his crinkled nostrils.

"What could they _possibly_ be discussing?" He said, frustrated.

Nirbai smirked, letting out a light chuckle. Eota reeled his head over to the noise.

"What is funny?" He demanded.

"I don't think they are discussing much… my lord." Nirbai grinned.

"They certainly couldn't be-"

"Isn't that a little naïve, prince?"

"Calling me naïve?! Grod oh whence, you really are fit to be a statesman, Nirbai." Eota snapped, shouldering around to face the other way, indicating he was done speaking to him.

With that, Nirbai whipped his case's locks back into place and ran across the broken-down hall, scrambling back into the decorated carriage that waited impatiently for him.

The princess nodded to him as he entered and then averted her eyes, immediately returning to a loop of distraction and patient waiting. In her head she forced the depressive darkness into a neat line far away, concentrating on a good thought. Right now it was the warmth of feeling something new and strange, the joy seemed to bloom like a flower inside.

_I need her. _

The thought had been triggered minutes ago, upon walking away from the broken hero. Now it tumbled around restlessly in her head. She had her next task: to tell Marceline those three words.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry I skipped a week. I was working on these big ass chapters. These are very critical chapters so I didn't want to rush them! I'll probably need another break, because the climax begins soon and I want to plan it out well. But enjoy the new content for now and leave some feedback!**

"Ignisem, what is the damned delay?" A voice like tumbling boulders said.

"The land is not so sleepy anymore." Ignisem muttered, head deep in his hood. "Our way to glory has been filled with masses of fools by that meddling princess of the old Kingsdom."

The grand ink monster, Atrocitas, scoffed with a rumbling rage in his throat; he sat beyond a flaming portal, in a hell world. His grotesque tentacles flicked about, drifting in subconscious impulse as he worked the brain in his black globule of a head.

"You say she is of the Kingsdom? The empire that defeated the Ghost Eater?"

"She is the royalty of the Candy Kingdom, a consequence of the Kingsdom split, but a female ancestor of hers must certainly have been involved. I watched that war myself through spy fires." Ignisem stalled a second, recalling the battle scenes from latter years.  
Presently, he turned to the monstrosity, looking it full in the eyes.

"With her heritage, she is much too qualified to fight us, we must kill her."

The monster nodded in return. "Certainly." He replied, flicking a tentacle irritably.

The wizard drew up maps of the land of Ooo, marking the advance of resistance to his terror: the Warrior Kingdom, the Mountain Kingdom, the human tribe, all rallying against him. Even the Fire Kingdom in whose corner he held his base was sending armies to the Princess Bubblegum.

"I didn't think I would've made a martyr of that stupid boy prince!" He cursed.

"Forget these piteous squabbles. Do your job and summon my army, Ignisem. With our full power it won't matter the spirits they are in. We will grind them into the ground." Atrocitas said from his portal.

"Not as easily done. The Underground seems to have leadership. An equally stubborn vampire girl who thinks she is of good blood." Ignisem said, angrily whipping off the hood of his fiery robes from his head.

"Though you may be a most powerful entity, that body you command was not given much of a brain, was it?" Atrocitas said, smirking.

"How dare you!" Ignisem raged into a pillar of fountaining lava, spitting insults at the monster, who kept a placid expression.

Atrocitas resumed his calm musing after the wizard cooled down into regular form.

"Ignisem, do you ever wonder why for all your divine power you were still overcome by a torrent of pathetic little souls? Because you encourage them to band together, you show all your cards and then let them besiege you at full strength. The dagger of sabotage is always more effective than the battle ax."

Ignisem flashed a look over to the portal, a rare look of humble contemplation on his face.

"You have gone and made a formidable opponent yet again, but there is still damage to be done to their unity. That vampire girl, Marceline, is connected to the Princess in more ways than one. Surely you know what I mean." Atrocitas shuffled his mass around, his midnight flesh rippling grotesquely.

"Uh… They are also friends?" Ignisem said, clearly lost.

"Oh, vacuous death light, you really are quite dim. Do you really think they are staying up late gossiping as they braid each other's hair?! She is the Princess' lover, you dolt!"

The wizard took a step back, squinting in concentration. He had seen them together quite often through his spy fires, but he had not considered this. Love and other sentimental emotions of that sort were lost fully on a thing like him.

"I see. And what do you suggest? To break them apart?" He said, craning his neck up to Atrocitas.

"Bah! To do so would only evoke further retaliation. We will have them break themselves apart. Not by attack, but by meddling. Love will destroy the Princess and the Vampire, and all of their hopes will fall with them." Atrocitas smirked, flicking his tendrils in quiet joy.

"You were right," he continued, "we do need to destroy the princess. But not by force. Summon me to Ooo and we shall make a trip to the Underground. Now will their defeat began."

. . .

A hot gasp burst out in the night and the vapor struck white against the blackness of the Underground. The next gasp was muffled by a tight hand, slid over squirming pink lips like a crypt's marble slab. Marceline pushed down firmly, pressing her body in to still her lover. The Princess, pinned down and stifled, huffed loudly under the powerful vampire grip, her eyes flickering under slatted lids as Marceline poured her passion down onto her. From below came the pale hand, strong but gentle, the fingers plunging up and in, then sliding out, then surging back in again. Bubblegum arched her back against the thrusting and her stomach became softly crested by the pooling light of a solitary candle, the only one they could risk to have on the roof of her makeshift mansion. Bubblegum reveled in her shock as silvery fingers left streaks of ice down her back and the odd sensation of her crotch's heat was cut through again and again by Marceline's defiantly cold hand. Pulsing, in and out, the vampire never seemed to lighten her pace working over the princess. Fearing she'd lose the moment, Bubblegum bit down on Marceline's stony grip, anchoring herself as her entire body shook in ecstasy. Her mind melted under that gaze, the lustful blacks of eyes hovering above the blood red tongue that slicked back and forth over ashen lips. A swirling of the thumb sent another sweep of pleasure through her body and she desperately threw her arms over the vampire to hold on. Her soft hands dug into Marceline's broad back, running over the thick muscle, her fingers flittering every time the vampire shoved her weight back down on her. She hit her peak with a buckle and muffled cry, and slipped down onto the roof, reeling in between awareness and dream. Marceline gently slid down onto the princess, taking her in her arms again and giving her an affectionate peck on the forehead. They smiled together, limbs entwined, lying under the blackness of the Underground's anti-sky.

A few hours later they both stirred from sleep to see a pristine moon edge into the frame of the great hole that led to Ooo. They took in its beauty together, regaining their focus on the world. This was their favorite place to be in the Underground, hiding away from the cynical ghosts, the frantic assistants and the war obsessed commanders. Marceline nibbled at the princess' hair idly as she ran her fingers over her lush pink skin. The thrill of her touch caused Bubblegum to turn a blushing face over to the vampire and they locked eyes. For a few minutes they talked without words, leaving the conversation to their wandering fingers. Abruptly, the princess tore her eyes away and smothered her head into Marceline's chest. She grabbed at the vampire's shower of midnight hair that flowed all about them and tugged lightly in a silent plea. Marceline drew her head back to look down at the shaking princess, gently guiding Bubblegum's head up with a pale hand on her chin.

"Bonnie, what's the matter?" She said, frowning at her.

Bubblegum flashed her eyes to the side, then looked down as she began to speak.

"I'm so scared, about everything. Running this kingdom and being with you in secret… How would my subjects feel if they knew?" She whimpered. Her misty eyes turned back to the view of the moon.

"Well, for one- who gives a damn? It's your kingdom. You're the one sacrificing everything. Why does it have to be secret? Just let them deal with it."

"It's not that simple, Mar… They want me to wed with the goblin Singly Eota. If they knew I was sneaking around with the daughter of the Lord of Evil… well I don't know. I don't think they would ever trust me again. They are so parochial..." Her tone grew increasingly harsh at the end, and she quietly muttered incoherent frustrations afterwards.

"Stuff that! You are the only thing standing in the way of their utter destruction and they want to control your love life?! You're not their puppet! Fuck them!" Marceline cursed to the air.

"I told you it's not that simple. It's never that simple for me, Marceline. You always think we can just bash through any problem that gets in our way, it's stupid and immature!" Bubblegum was angry, breathing heavy.

She felt a strange air come between them in the long pause that followed. Suddenly the vampire's embrace felt cold in an unusual way, her body was rigid and tense against the princess' gummy pink skin. Bubblegum brought her head up to look at Marceline's face: it was a mixed expression of anger, sadness and, above all, blankness. There was something bad burning in the vampire's mind but she was forcing down a heavy blanket of calm in hopes to smother it.

"Mar… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to call you that. I'm just frustrated…" Bubblegum said, gently tugging on the vampire's shoulders.

Marceline turned her face away,

"Bee…" She began.

A loud clattering at the edge of the roof tore them from their drama and Marceline violently pulled away from her embrace with Bubblegum to hover in an upright position as a royal guard swung over onto the roof from a ladder.

"Good, we found you both. There is quite an emergency." He gasped.

. . .

The carriage strained as it drove near vertical up the mountain that held the Spark Alternator at its leveled precipice. The ride was jolting, jerking and intensely uncomfortable. Marceline hadn't spoken the entire time, she stuck her head out the window instead. Bubblegum frequently glanced over to the lady in black leather, frowning and attempting to gather the courage to bridge the weird divide that had fallen between them. It was no use, the vampire was stubborn and would stick in this bad mood regardless of how much it hurt her lover. Marceline silently cursed at herself for this habit, but knew she couldn't get around her pride when it was this battered and swollen.

_Who is right here? Isn't it right for me to be offended by the things she said? She was heartless, she knows those are two things I am afraid of being. It's not like she's just chiding me for fun anymore either, she meant it this time… _Marceline huffed, flashing angry eyes over to the princess, who luckily had been staring down at her hands.

_Stop, you idiot! By acting like this you are only proving that you are immature… Who is right? What does it matter… _The vampire held an uneasy face, putting a hand in front to disguise any emotion that was leaking through.

The carriage broke out onto even ground and quickly scooted across towards the crowd of ghosts that had gathered about the hulking factory mass of the Spark Alternator. Nirbai ran through the huddled mass and swung open the cabin door as soon as it had come to rest, bowing deeply as the ladies made their way out of the exit, then he escorted the two towards the crowd of ghosts.

"Hello, Princess." He said as he handed her a neat pin of papers, "the situation here is rather grim. It would seem the Fire Lord has broken in once again and stole energy from the Soul Source, and this time he wasn't challenged."

Bubblegum stopped in her tracks, Marceline bumped into her confusedly from behind.

"Who was supposed to be protecting the Alternator tonight?" She addressed it to both Nirbai and Marceline, rage brimming in her.

The two looked at each other. Nirbai simply raised his eyebrows and turned his attention to his papers, sifting through them. A dread dawned on Marceline, her mouth turned down.

"Well?" Bubblegum demanded angrily.

_Those stupid fucking vamps. _Marceline cursed in her mind. She remembered then that she had volunteered a few vampires for the task of defending the Spark Alternator this night. It was originally going to be her duty, but in a rush she had thrown the chore on a group of friends she usually haunted the Velvet House with. They neither said yes or no to the demand, throwing 'vampire queen' chides at her, but she was too distracted with her passionate urge to see the princess to deal with their attitude. She had assumed they would give up their night out of respect for her. She had assumed wrong, apparently.

"I'm sorry... I was assigned here tonight, but I gave the task to some of my vampire friends. They aren't very reliable, I guess." Marceline groveled, refusing to make eye contact with the princess.

"How much did he steal?" Bubblegum said, turning her attention to Nirbai.

"Ah…" Nirbai glanced down at his papers, squinting at a particular line. "The mechanics are saying he was able to take almost everything in the well, which they estimate was about the equivalent of 1800 average souls."

Bubblegum turned inward to a calculation she had been constructing for this purpose. She was attempting to estimate the Fire Lord's current state of power, based on the reported amounts of his previous siphons and historical accounts of his original source. In any other situation she would've disregarded such a hypothesis as dangerously flimsy, but she had no other means of predicting his threat. It had been estimated by scholars of the Kingsdom that his well of power held the magnitude of around 18,000 souls in the old days. Luckily, back then, the Wizard's College was able to stretch a large net of ward spells across the entire land of Ooo and narrow his command of power down to around 7000 souls. Even with his power choked, the Fire Lord put up quite a fight against the force sent to defeat him. That army, made up of master wizards, behemoth creatures, and fleets of ironclad armies, was leagues ahead of the force Bubblegum was scraping together from the already war torn land of Ooo…

A click in her mind, that familiar hum of results. The computations had been completed, though no joy could be taken from the success. The resultant burned in her mind, dread dripping from the digits, pooling heavily in her stomach.

_8100._

Enough buffer on either side for the real number to still be equally terrifying.

She closed her eyes and squeezed the lids together, trying her best to forget it all.

"Bonnie?" Marceline said from behind her.

Bubblegum turned a face of rage to her, lips trembling. Marceline fell back, her face flushing in shame. She began to stammer out an apology, anything to make it better…

"Marceline, please stay here and consult your royal staff for war preparation. We will convene tomorrow night at the Council Hall to discuss mobilization. I don't want to see you until then. Goodbye." The Princess soberly made her way back to the carriage, trailed by Nirbai who gave a quiet glance back to the slouching vampire.

Bubblegum's procession faded away into the haze of the Underground, leaving Marceline behind. The vampire looked to the ground, shrouding her face beneath a canopy of hair. Tears dripped from her eyes, curses from her mouth. A great darkness fell around her.

In her carriage Bubblegum made quaint small talk with the goblin assistant. He gave her a few ounces of hope upon informing her that many of the wandering mage tribes, who had spawned from the Wizard College's destruction, were eager in announcing their allegiance to the princess' army, determined to reclaim the glory of their ancestors.

_Maybe it will all be okay… If I can just focus on the war, maybe we can pull through this. Either way, I need to forget about her for now… _Bubblegum thought grimly, looking out a window out into the Strip, watching the drunkards clash together aimlessly.

. . .

Great souls aren't given breaks. Like tempered steel they must be thrown in the fire again and again, every inch of their being tested in the hell of the forge so that one day they may emerge a treasure to the world. This was the way of the princess' life, ever a test of her potential.

And right now that test manifested itself in literal fire.

From above the carriage a great column of flames streamed down, being pushed through the air by the Fire Lord himself. The carriage driver shouted loudly as the fire fell at him, though he was swept away to his death by something else- a shadowy glob of monster.

Total noise filled the cabin; the princess barely had time to widen her eyes before the carriage was ripped in two by a pillar of fire. Nirbai and Bubblegum spilled out on opposite sides of the flames, landing hard between tufts of fire and scraps of the broken carriage. The Fire Lord slowly descended towards the princess, grinning devilishly. Everything was a blur to the her; she was half conscious, hit hard by the sudden trauma of the fall. She felt Ignisem approach from his intense heat and began to cry in desperation, knowing death approached with him.

"Now, now, don't fret. You will not die this day. I have a plan, you see…" He said.

Through her tears she saw his grin, blazing with evil.

A pain slowly slid into her, like a needle. Then, as if the needle of pain had emptied its contents into her, a fire flooded throughout her body. She gasped and seized, unable to make a noise. The pain hit all corners of her mind and in a snap she lost consciousness, collapsing back into the remnants of the carriage.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Hey y'all. This is cosla. Wildfire is on Megapause due to con season/full time work and full time school/moving homes**

When it starts updating again I promise it will be a flood of content, with a great climax!

"Where is she?!"

A howl of wild fear echoed off the great arching walls of the Candy Kingdom's hospital. It was the first thing Bubblegum heard upon regaining consciousness.

"Please, we have particular security protocols and you can't just-"

A crash followed and several men yelled in confusion, then the clomp of heavy boots tumbled towards the damaged princess in her bed. She was blinded upon straining open her eyes, finding she couldn't move her head to the side. Quickly, though, the flood of light was blocked by a looming figure of pure blackness. It stared down with vivid white eyes and the intensity in them stirred her lips with stumbles of breath. In her state everything was blurry, nothing fitting together in cohesion. She did not know where or what she was- until a sensation hit her on the cheek. It was wet, a little drop of icy water. The orb slid down her cheek and the coldness of it drew together the light with forms, the blurs into images; inside her mind began the subtle beginnings of a long crescendo of brain activity that would break her back into cognizance. More tears dropped onto her face. The shadow was wavering. Then the tears showered over her, every dapple bringing her closer to life again. Words burst from some dam in her mind and her eyes brightened with recognition.

"Mar…" She wheezed.

Marceline hiccupped with joy and fell onto her, squeezing her tight. The princess drew a little smile, finding the effort quite a strain.

"Hello, vampire." Nirbai said as he approached the two, hands clasped behind his back. "Yes, as you can see she will be all well."

"It was the Fire Wizard, wasn't it?" Marceline looked up, tucking the dazed princess in her breast.

"Who else would do such a thing as this." The goblin said, looking down solemnly.

Marceline grunted and turned her attention back to the princess, running pale hands through her tousled hair. He eased away from them, walking aimlessly about the aisle of gurneys while they embraced. The ruffled paper in his hand that he kept glancing to indicated that he had something important to say to the princess but was waiting for her to recover further. Bubblegum saw this and recognized the situation, but she knew that whatever news it could be it would most certainly be bad. For now, she played dead and kept within the safety of Marceline's arms and sweet whispers.

Some time passed before Nirbai's impatience inevitably drove him over to them.

"Is she fully awake?" He quested, gripping onto a railing of the bed.

Marceline looked down to the princess who nodded and began to shift herself from under the folds of her embrace. Marceline floated off completely, setting down beside the bed and reaching for a hand to hold. Bubblegum inched up carefully in her bed, knowing that any overextension would bring down the full pain of the burns that had ruined nearly everything below her stomach.

"…What is it, Nirbai?" Bubblegum husked out. Marceline poked her eyes out from behind the princess' orb of pink hair to stare at the goblin.

"Grim news, I fear. It's about Eota." His mouth tensed as he drew out a particular paper, purposefully placing it down in her free hand with a dramatic slowness.

The letter was wrinkled and water stained; she recognized it's blaring watermark immediately as the chest of the Loudsteel tribe of goblins- Eota's very own. The words were frantic, depressive, the stains upon the paper spackled, like tears… A dread hit her then as she realized what she was reading.

"Eota wrote this?" She began, trying to avoid the truth.

"Ah… Yes. It was discovered in place of him in the Underground's infirmary this morning."

Losing her place, Bubblegum started again at the top of the letter. Her hand gripped the paper tightly, it began to tear.

I hope this makes it to the Princess.

Bubblegum- if I may be so informal,

There are things I wish I could say to you, moments I wish I could've had.

But it's too late… I am just a sword, and I need to swing.

You and I both now bear the burns of the Fire Lord, that menace,

That bastard, who thinks he can destroy us.

He has far too long made us cringe in fear, and now, attacking you…

How dare he. How dare I lay here and let him do such a thing?

He will never win, not against The Princess of the Kings.

Do you think it would shock the people if they knew that you were my hero growing up?

Of course you would never marry me, I will always be a child to you.

But I have my purpose, I am a sword. Watch me swing. Maybe, even, remember me.

Farewell my hero,

-Singly Eota

"He attached an illustration detailing a weakness he has supposedly found in the Fire Lord's defense. Something involving an enchanted amulet beneath his robes that channels his raw soul essence. He indicates that he will concentrate his attacks on the amulet." Nirbai added as the Princess finished reading.

"He went to attack the Fire Lord _alone_?" She asked, hand over her mouth.

"It would seem. I have assumed command of the United Goblin Forces for now. In the event that he doesn't come back-"

"He's _not _coming back. This is a suicide note." She said, dropping the letter to a corner of the bed. She turned to Marceline and frowned, tears rolling down her cheeks.

She didn't expect to be so effected by his death. In the past she had found him to be a pest- an intriguing pest, but nevertheless… It was just another sign of the oddness of these times.

"If I may ask… What did he mean exactly when he said you were his hero growing up? And why did he refer to you by your grandmother's title?" Nirbai asked, he held a brow up in question.

Bubblegum turned away from the goblin, glancing to Marceline. The vampire knew many secrets of the Kingdom and of her past- the princess having spilled it out in emotion while in a loving caress- but there were things too sensitive even for her to know.

_Damn that prince for his wits. He manages to make me cry in his memory, and then somehow guesses my ultimate secret? It's a shame he was so foolhardy in the end. They always are… _She was chewing her lip, contemplating the repercussions of an open truth.

To her relief, though intensely bittersweet, the question was killed by the loud entrance of the Kingdom's surgeon, Doctor Cane. Slamming through the heavy doors at the far end of the sick ward, his brisk pace betrayed the worry in his sterile face. He stopped at the foot of the bed and placed both hands on its railing.

"I would wish to speak to the princess alone about very sensitive matters." He said.

"Oh no, they can stay. It's about time the full truth be known." Bubblegum said, waving a hand.

On either side, attentive eyes shot to Bubblegum's face. She simply waved her hand again for the doctor to precede.

"Ah… okay, then." He stood upright and started to saunter around near the foot of the bed. "Princess. As you know we've been having quite some difficulties finding a suitable procedure for your injuries. And since you've banned even the discussion of… well, you know…" He trailed off.

"What do _you_ know? What's happening?" Marceline rasped.

"Just a second, Abbie. You may discuss it, doctor." Bubblegum said.

"Well… I don't like piling on the bad news, but… without the Broth Elixir, you are looking at a steep risk."

The Princess was already shaking her head.  
"Not this time." She muttered.

"It's the only way now!" The crackly peppermint cane snapped.

He settled at the foot of the bed again, giving the princess a firm but somber face. His hands rung the railing in tension.

She swung her eyes into her pillow, catching a little fit of coughing.  
"What about enchanting a new gem?" She said a little quietly, glancing around to the doctor again.

He shook his head tiredly, "It's not something we can summon up last minute like this. I do it regrettably as well, Highness, but if we don't give you the Elixir immediately, you could suffer unpredictable illnesses. You might age, or warp, or turn inside out, I just don't know. One thing is certain, though- the risk could very well be fatal."  
"Fatal? As in death?!" Marceline said, whipping her head from Bubblegum to the Doctor.

"I still won't allow the Elixir. I- I can't…" Bubblegum shook her head, looking down.

"What is that? Can someone tell me anything?!" Marceline said, exasperated.

"…The Broth Elixir is my greatest secret. It is the reason why I have been alive for the past 500 years." The princess said.

Nirbai almost snapped his neck from how fast he shot a look of confusion to her. Her indifference to his shock made him turn away and put a hand to his mouth in thought. Bubblegum sighed heavily, then continued,

"It started first as an attempt at immortality. I've always been obsessed with the idea… Long ago, when I had just emerged from my father's vault into the wastelands, I found, sitting at the foot of the door, a note with a pink gem wrapped inside. It was from my father, a rare artifact from an old colleague of his. The note said that the stone would heal my wounds and keep me healthy from the fallout. He said that one day I would bring peace to the land under a kingdom, and on that day the gem will give me the tools to manipulate magic and I would wear it in my crown. He ordered me to live." The Princess paused, breathing deeply with only the slightest tremble touching her. She continued,

"I had no clue what he meant, I thought maybe he had gone mad. I mean, I could always tell my father had been grooming me for power, but ruling a kingdom in a nuclear wasteland wasn't exactly what I was expecting. But soon the green rain started to heal the land, and _birth _it. It became apparent that a new civilization was arising from the ashes, so I followed my father's instructions and settled a village of candy people. I was at first bewildered by the magic creatures, but I soon realized that I could not be considered normal anymore, either. The gem was turning my skin pink, and I was becoming candy, like them. I still cannot completely fathom why this happened. Perhaps the magic behaves like a localized infection, and everyone in that location is mutated the same way. Anyways, to get to the point… Our village soon became a castle, and I brought together a Kingdom from the major strongholds in the land- that was the Kingsdom, I'm sure you know. With all this time passing, I was growing older and weaker, and experiencing disabling fits of sickness. The stone had prolonged my life, but with my soul's spark waning, it was giving me too much power and making me sick. If it wasn't for Doctor Cane's great-grandfather, the land's first alchemist, I would've died right there, leaving Ooo to contend with the Lich and Ghost Eater without leadership. He had travelled from Wizard City, where he had learned all about the power gems of Ooo. Even to this day, power gems are for the most part a mystery. Directing or modulating their power output is still centuries away. However, he said that there were ways of restoring me to my old condition so that the gem would stop making me sick. This way appealed to me highly, for it appeared to be a path to immortality. At that time, I didn't care what the cost was. I just wanted it."

She paused again and coughed, then resumed,

"Everything in this world requires a sacrifice, and life has one of the highest tolls. For someone to live, many others must die. That is the rule of nature, and magic is nothing but an permutation of nature." She paused a third time, breathing in sharply.  
"The alchemist Cane's solution required the bodies of living candy people to be boiled down, then extracting and purifying the soul energy from the broth. It worked, it saved me. I ruled the land and guided them from darkness, faking my first death and birthing into a new persona. I'd found immortality at last and, for the moment, I was fine with the price. But the problem with immortality is that you have to live with the things you've done to achieve it, you have to live with yourself and pretend to be okay with it forever. And I'm not, not anymore." Bubblegum finished and shot her eyes towards a window.

Nirbai was sitting back, taking all of it in with his eyes averted. He had been completely oblivious to all of this previously, but it seemed so apparent to him now.

_Of course, look at all those historical accounts of the old Kingsdom, the Lich War, the Ghost Eater… All her! The appearance, the personality- all exactly the same! How could no one see it? She must have some fierce propagandists in her employ… _He rolled around the thoughts in his mind, slicking back his hair over and over with his scaly hands

"I swear, I only used prisoners, bad doers who were beyond salvation! But I can't keep selfishly clinging to my life like that, no. The people trust me and in return I pray on them for my own greed…" Bubblegum flushed dark red, and shifted uncomfortably in her bed. Her lip trembled on the edge of a great shudder.

The two stared at her blankly. Bubblegum squinted as she failed to detect any shock from them.

"I don't really see a problem with that…?" Marceline said, arching an eyebrow.

"Yeah… They were prisoners, you said they were beyond salvation." Nirbai chimed in.

"Oh grod… Well, besides the _ethical abomination_, I am also inhibited by the fact that I promised all of my prisoners freedom if they fought in the war. I can't go back on that promise!" Bubblegum said

"…But you could." Marceline returned.

"No, Marceline!" The princess snapped, throwing up her arms, "This is exactly what is wrong with you! You are willing to do anything, as long as it helps you. Those criminals are still my people- they're still people period! I am good, Marceline, can't you understand I must be good?"

"No, this is exactly what is wrong with _you! _You keep choosing this moral high ground over me in order to feel better about yourself! Why can't you just feel better? I'm here, isn't that all you need- or was that a lie?!"

The doctor walked up to Nirbai, giving him an expression that read: 'should we leave?' Nirbai leaned over to him,

"I've been witness to a few of these fights, just let them sort it out." He whispered.

"You can't risk your life just for some stupid moral platitude, Bonnie! You… you can't die…" Marceline said, her voice thin and desperate.

"I have to be an example to my people. I must salvage what dignity I have left. I will see this war won but I won't continue this awful secret. I'd rather die than be forever known as the Princess who cannibalized her subjects just so she could be selfishly in love."

Marceline's lips trembled, defeated. She gave one last teary look to Bubblegum, pleading in her eyes, then stormed out.

The princess' eyes lingered on the exit for a few seconds, then she turned her attention to the two men at her bedside.

"So… the war?" She said tiredly.


End file.
